A man has been arrested after 129 kilograms of suspected ketamine with an estimated market value of around HK$71 million were intercepted at Hong Kong’s airport.
Hong Kong Customs made the seizure on Tuesday after two consignments from Germany were selected for inspection. In one, which said it contained amber, “multiple nylon bags containing real amber and suspected ketamine, both wrapped in plastic bags, were found,” the department said in a statement on Thursday.
“At the same time, Customs officers found 69 bottles of powder in the consignment declared as glitter, and it was discovered that 29 of them were suspected to be ketamine,” the statement said. Together, both batches of suspected ketamine weighed about 129 kilograms.
After conducting what they called a “controlled delivery operation” on Tuesday, customs officers arrested the 24-year-old who received the delivery, with local media reporting that he was a traveller from Europe. “An investigation is ongoing,” customs said on Thursday.
Police confiscated their largest haul of ketamine in 2021, when they seized 1.3 tonnes which was being offloaded from a speedboat in Lei Yue Mun.
The Customs and Excise Department on Monday announced it had made the biggest gold smuggling bust in its history, seizing 146 kilograms of the precious metal disguised as air compressor parts. The gold arrived in Hong Kong from Japan in March, and was thought to be worth HK$84 million.
One man, 31, was arrested and released on bail, and further arrests could not be ruled out.
Meanwhile, a plastic barrel containing around eight kilograms of suspected cocaine worth an estimated HK$8 million was found on Lido Beach in Ting Kau on Tuesday, six days after 19 bricks of suspected cocaine were reportedly washed up on Chung Hong Kok Beach in Stanley.
Both cases were listed as discovery of suspicious objects and were followed up by the Narcotics Bureau, police said.
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